Pokemon X and Y: When will the game’s graphics be as good as the TV show?

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In the first 48 hours of their release, Pokemon X and Y sold four million units, making them two of the fastest-selling games of all time, just behind Grand Theft Auto 5. Pokemon X and Y are being universally received as excellent additions to the second-biggest-selling game franchise of all time — and beyond the addition of full networking/multiplayer functionality, by far the greatest new feature is the addition of full 3D graphics in battles and in some areas of the game world. The 3D graphics are so good that Pokemon X and Y almost looks the same as the Pokemon TV show — an impressive jump from the Nintendo DS’s weak 2D graphics. The question is, though: When will the graphics of a Pokemon game be better than the TV show?

Prior to the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo portables packed some of the weakest hardware in the gaming industry. The Game Boy Advance, released in 2001, had a 16MHz ARM CPU — at the same time, in the PC industry, AMD had just released the magnificent Barton-core Athlon XP. The Nintendo DS, which was released in 2004 and went on to become the biggest selling game console of all time, had a 67MHz CPU and 4MB of RAM. As we’ve learnt with the rise of smartphones, though, portability and accessibility can be a lot more valuable than flashy visuals.

The 3DS, however, perhaps by virtue of its high-res display and other advanced features, packs a dual-core ARM chip clocked at around 233MHz, 128MB of RAM, and a GPU with OpenGL support and 6MB of dedicated VRAM. As a result, after monopolizing the portable gaming market for 25 years, you can finally play some impressive 3D games on a Nintendo handheld. When it comes to standard 3D games, the graphics on the 3DS aren’t that impressive — but for Pokemon, which is based on a simply drawn anime TV show, the image quality is impressively similar. Take a look at the comparison screenshots and videos below.

Screenshots from the Pokemon TV show. Click to zoom in.

Screenshots from the Pokemon X and Y games. Click to zoom in.

When will the Pokemon games have better graphics than the TV show?

As you can see, the TV show has slightly more detail than Pokemon X and Y, but the difference is fairly minimal — except, of course, for aliasing. While the TV show looks smooth and warm, Pokemon X and Y has lots of jaggy edges that catch the eye in a bad way. Some of the textures look a bit too digital/computery in the Pokemon game, too.

The jaggy edges are caused by the low output resolution of the Nintendo 3DS (400×240) on a 3.5-inch display. It simply isn’t possible to draw those thin, dark outlines on every character at 400×240 (133 PPI) and not have jaggy edges. If the resolution was much higher — say, the 1136×640 (326 PPI) — then those jaggies would go away.

A higher resolution would necessitate a more powerful CPU and GPU, though — but nothing too extraordinary. A last-gen Qualcomm SoC (the Snapdragon S4 with Adreno 225 GPU) or Apple SoC (A6 with a PowerVR SGX543MP3 GPU) would have more than enough processing oomph, bandwidth, and polygon-pushing power to drive a cel-shaded version of Pokemon that looks better than the TV show. Or, to put it another way, if Nintendo ever released Pokemon for iOS or Android, the image quality could be better than the TV show.

Processing power, though, is cheap. By the time the next Nintendo handheld comes along, it’s virtually guaranteed that it will have a big enough CPU and GPU that it can easily match graphics quality of the Pokemon TV show. A better question to ask is whether Pokemon’s developer, Game Freak (owned by Nintendo), will actually bother spending time on creating high-quality models and textures to beat the graphics quality of the Pokemon TV show. Considering there’s no competition, and Pokemon X and Y were two of the fastest selling games of all time, I can’t imagine Game Freak or Nintendo will be pushing overly hard for super-high-quality graphics.

[The story originally said that 5.5 million units were sold in 24 hours. Nintendo has since provided the official figure of four million in 48 hours, and the story has been updated to reflect that fact.]

Tagged In

Who knows the answer to this. I know it’s a cry made all over the net, but I’m still waiting for the day Nintendo gets brave to do a solid Pokemon MMO. Yes, many will now argue “They’ve done it with X and Y!” to which I say Neigh! They’ve gone ahead and implemented a great and powerful portable communication network. They’ve upped the graphics a fair bit compared and much more. All wonderful things. But what I want to do is battle like in the show. So my question is; When will the games play more like the show?

Yep, to the majority it does play… kinda the same. Someone calls out an attack, you call out your attack. Difference is, in the show all parties hear both attacks. And much of the time the rebuttal attack is to the one heard. In the game it’s a mystery. Ok, not such a bad thing, I’m fine by that. But one other benefit to the battling in the show is active dodging and “skill” of the Pokemon itself. Like most RPG’s it’s quantified in the Pokemon Games. But it can be so much more given today’s resources.

Imagine it (prep for stuff you’ve heard before), you play as a trainer made from a pretty extensive character screen, You move around a detailed enough world stumbling across Pokemon. Get into a battle and toss your pokeball. The camera follows the ball, and on release you now control your Pokemon. Able to run move and apply attacks as sent from the trainer. Stats still play a role, but you can aim, run, jump, roll. An unrealistic dream? Perhaps.

Anyway, I know that’s not a want of a lot of people, most are content with an upped graphics system to reflect the growth, and I can be content for the most part with that too. There is a familiarity with the current turn based play style. But… sigh, just will keep hope that Pokemon Mars and Venus will be on the Wii U4D in this fashion.

David Kamat

Before I read your third paragraph, I was thinking the exact same thing. It would be so sick to be able to control a pokemon “during” the action, so as to run around, dodge, and then maybe use the 4 different types of attacks? That way, you would be utilizing the terrain a lot more too. However, pokemon battles like that would take AGES. Can you imagine doing all that stuff every single time you were approached by a bug catcher in Viridian Forest? Or on your way out of a cave?

Maybe they could have the “T.V” style game play only in important battles like the Elite 4, or your rival.

poken1151

Yup, these kind of battles I assume would take much longer than the standard that’s there now. But that’s why I point out; it wouldn’t be something of the DS or handheld form, it’s not an idea for that at all. It’s one that’s separate and focused purely on the Player-vs-Player combat, in a full 3D setting that admittedly would have to be carried out on a different console (hence my ref. to Wii U or such).

I have love for Pokemon as is also, like I said, the current battle style is well loved and and hence why it’s one of the best selling franchises ever. I’m not suggesting throwing out the old and adopting a new, merely having a variation in a different form factor.

These style of games are great on the DS and handhelds, I’m talking about High-end console iterations, so imagine my words applied to a new Pokemon Stadium release.

Thanks, I’ll definitely take a look at it after work. I’d not known something like this existed (though N would have filed a cease and desist already, too, if it had existed).

Matthew Gargan

i guess realistic unless it is going to make and have 600+ pokemons with FULL 3D models and animations, a MORE powerful DS, MORE size for games eg the SD Card then nope… Until the DS has the ability to use about a 12gb SD Card, have better hardware, an easier menu to control while moving take for example Monster Hunter with their ability to move and 600x the amount of charectors you would be luck to ATLEAST have 100 but yeah… although unless it has N64 hardware it would may need more though… idk true Pokemom MMO….. There is an GBA FireRed MMO! but its a freeware though….

poken1151

Like I said above, I think you may have missed my reference. There’s no way they can currently achieve what I described on the DS systems. I was hypothesizing to a higher end dedicated console much like the Wii U.

So to repeat: These style of games are great on the DS and handhelds, I’m talking about High-end console iterations, so imagine my words applied to a new Pokemon Stadium release on the home console.

Edgar Vargas

I have a 16 gb sdhc in my 3ds, and it works fine. Maybe read what you said wrong, but thought i’d throw that out there.

While the underlying message remains strong, half of your explanations here hinged on the idea that the Pokemon games are based on the anime, when in fact the opposite is true. The games came first and the anime is based on the games, NOT the other way around.

But we kind of missed the whole ‘When will the Pokemon TV show look better than the games?’ question by… ooh… 15 years :)

angelvahn

Thats like saying way to go every movie based off a comic book, novel or video game your visuals were so much better than the source material so the source material must suck. Comments like yours again in my ealier message show how little research youve done. Sir nice try but try again

Kokujo Report

I’m sorry if this sounds hateful but your article is makes no sense the Pokemon games are not made to be an adaptation of the anime it’s the other way around (Which the show fails at I might add) moreover the anime is made for the big screen which means tons of animators (btw even with alot of animators the show still has its fair share of coloring errors) as oppsed to one artist for all the Pokemon and game made for handhelds ugh this whole article is compleatly absurd.

ONE ITS A TV SHOW BUILT FOR BIGGER SCREENS THAN THE 3DS/DS AND THE GAME ITSELF IS FOR *SMALLER* SCREENS…. It cannot be simple enough…

poken1151

I get your point. I hate trying to read between the lines for an author, but I’d wager he’s extending his thoughts beyond that of the DS also. I mean, it’s shown the DS can push pretty great looking games (the Metroid game for ex). So it’s not a long shot to assume the DS’s can push out more, or even that when they make the next Pokemon Stadium (and the will) it’d be ever closer visually (though the last Stadium was pretty good looking, so I know it’s a far stretch to assume he was referring beyond the portable console)/

Cokemon

Dont know about that. What I do know is that Pokemon sucks.

Kiryu Kyosuke

While looking at your name, it surely does. In your own fantasy world.

Eva Amore

What you think* That is only an opinion.

SyrilRam

Wow, that’s a lot of misinformation there.

A few things, Super Mario 64 DS came out with the DS originally (which is a 3D game), and also the Game Boy Advance could do a little 3D (Super Monkey Ball) as well.

You say “prior to the 3DS, the Nintendo portables packed some of the weakest hardware”, which is true, and it’s still true with the 3DS as well. Compared to the Vita, it’s not as powerful, but that doesn’t matter.

You said “for Pokemon, which is based on a simply drawn anime TV show”? well, that’s quite wrong. Pokemon Red, Blue, and Green came first, and then they made the anime, the card game, etc.

Also, it’s never coming to iOS or Android, so don’t hold your breath there. The jaggies aren’t noticeable during battles with the 3D turned on.

Another thing, I don’t think most people watch the battle animations after a few hours, so they just turn them off so they can keep grinding faster. That would make the whole use of time, money, and resources needed to put all of that detail in there a waste, and they can’t use all of those cool camera angles from the show without messing up the controls and navigation that make the games playable. The last time anybody tried doing something like that was Dragon’s Lair, and besides looking awesome, the gameplay was awful.

angelvahn

Ok first off your an idiot that knows nothing about pokemon and nothing about the 3ds, try looking at the graphics for a game called tales of the abyss one for the ps2 then the remake for the 3ds.
Next fix yourself with that comment about the crappy cartoon inspired the game.
third the previous consoles, game boy color to DS were based off the current technology which was pretty good for its time.
Fourth the ds beat out the PSP the technologically suppressor handheld.
Fifth the 3ds is behind on sales compared to smartphones only cause of the sheer volume of games and easy acess.
Sixth why are comparing a tv series to a video game thats just lazy and shows how little research youve done.

But after all this dont get it twisted im not advicate of nintendo, the make a lot of very bad decisions especially when it comes to their console wii u that thing is abyssmal. Their decision not to release DLC for X and Y based off a feeling when sales and from technological point it offers an extension on the game rather as they said an incomplete product.

To wrap this up do your research before you come to the conclusion that a game that is obviously selling well is not good.

Antoine Talbot

Is it just me or this article doesn’t belong to this tech news site at all? I saw the title and I thought it was a joke… seriously…. pokemon ? Common Sebastian Anthony, I usually like your articles, but you could have satisfied your envy to right about pokemon somewhere else. No hard feelings.

Kiryu Kyosuke

It’s disgusting how many people can even talk like this, when the recent game is beyond awful. Have you seen the features? Then you’ve seen how much ton of lack it was holding. Have you seen the post-game content? Good, then you’ll realize soon enough that it was the worse in the entire franchise. Have you seen the lack of new Pokémons? Then you realize that their bullshit work on graphic and modeling where barely no one cares about, was the cause of all this. Have you seen how rushed the storyline was? Right, right. I need to stop babbling. Anyhow, now to get my point across. Gamefreak need to shut the fuck up and focus AGAIN on and in the entire game itself, instead of trying the game look more realistic while doing half assed work on anything else.

Kokujo Report

Sorry but I fail to see how the game is awful if anything the games are the strongest entries in the series thus far because they actually introduced things that the franchise needed to have in order to survive like Super Training, being the first games in the main series to be in 3d, Character Custimization, a type to nerf the overpowered types AKA Fairy, PSS, a way to decrease griding, a way to change the tide of a batte AKA Mega Evolutions etc, so yeah I fail to see how they are horrible if anything these games should of been made ASAP futhermore I feel that it’s zany to say that the games are bad due to how many Pokemon they introduced ( and besides there’re still more to be revealed like Fuupa and Volcanion the game even states that 40 speices of Kalos Pokemon have been killed off) as for the postgame most Pokemon games save gen 2 games, and black 2White 2 don’t have a postgame altleast with these games there’re over 700 Pokemon to use, various teams to make, and many sidequest stories to keep players interested(Which already puts it over gen 1, 3, 4, and black and white), and Story is not rushed but straight to the point it was not made to be deep like Black and Whites story nor was it made to be played out Masuda even stated that the story was’nt going to be the focus besides atleast games the 5th and 6th gen games attempt to have a story unlike most Pokemon games. Whew but look I’m not trying to bash you I just wanted to fill you in and voice my thesis to you sorry if I came off offensive.

Kiryu Kyosuke

You are basically saying that you fail at see how everything is dumbed down from what is originally was, correct? I mean, it’s just got so extreme that it became a walk in the park. I remember going around the series and meet a couple of little challenges here and there. This game? I keep one-shotting everything, even with a regular Mawile and we all know how weak Mawile is, as proven in the previous generation. If the story wasn’t rushed how is almost everything still unclear? So many plotholes; to many questions without answers, the story after some time won’t be a problem knowing that there will be a third game, so we’ll soon get some answers by then, hopefully. B/W2 had actual post-game content, you could do Pokéstar studio, Black City/White Treehollow and even Pokémon world tournament, the rest you mentioned isn’t revelant knowing how we always have those stuff in any other previous generations. Those names you mentioned are event legendaries mostly (Rumors), the side-story in XY takes at most one hour to finish and I’ve no clue what it was about. It defintely didn’t kept me interested, rather kept me annoyed. This is a rich region. And they made the money making horrible. Elite Four got even dumbed down; easy type-match up, they don’t level in the second playthrough, less legendaries, almost no feature content that’ll keep you busy, to many cities, less landshape thus making exploration a bit tedious, they discarded way to many beautiful places they could take inspiration from and move onto it from there. In my point of view, XY is far behind Black and White 2. I’ll make my final judgement when the third game comes along.

However, i’m not saying that I hate these games, it just felt plain and empty while going through it. The 3D models and environment were simple stunning, a lot of choices of Pokémon, Mega evolution, character customization. Just the lack of expansion and half-assed job on various things, a challenge level that of a gold fish made me always puck even with the exp share on off. Gonna keep it short from here since I already have a wall of ranting text. I hope the third game will have a lot more expansion, etc. They’ve taken away a lot of features and content from the two previous entrees, resulting in my little disgust towards these two games.

Kokujo Report

Everybody is entitled to their own opinon I’m not saying your wrong for feeling the way you feel nor am I saying that you should gush over these games like a fanboy however I’m saying that you should appreciate these games for the content they introduced to the series because X and Y like Gold and Silver before them introduced features that the series NEEDED to survive without the stuff that X and Y bought to the franchise would have been brought to an abrupt end, as for the story like I said it was straight to the piont and not overblown in BW like that absurd scenario and the missing points to the story will most likely be filled in by Z the same way Platinum did for Diamond and Pearl as you stated earlier, as for the dumbed down experience that again is all opiniated while some players like you may find the EXP.ALL a hinderance others like me welcome it because we don’t have to worry about grinding our Pokemon or our starter being ten lvls above the rest of our party members and you must keep in mind that unlike all of the other games minus these games were made to appeal to a broader audience not just hardcore Pokemon fans like you I but to also to such groups as the Casual players, the People who just want to collect the pokemon, and those who just like to play the games for the nostalgiamemory value so many of the changes to them are a God sent, as for the lengendaries they’re real Masuda confirmed them himself and he also stated that there will be more Pokemon this gen like I said before, and since this whole reply has been about Opinons let me give you mine to me the Gen 5 games were the worst in the series they were overhyped big time (in Japan anyways) and all of that hype was undeserved all of the new Pokemon are just expies of older Pokemon and the story is absolutly terrible the games had the nads to tackle a controversial topic but in the end that’s all thrown out the window when you first meet Team Plasma people who claim to want the liberation of Pokemon but yet steal other people’s Pokemon and attack you with them… lol wut and thier leader is the worst in the series and his plan was so bad it’s horrendous I want to be the only one in the world to use Pokemon so I’ll take advantage of the stupidity of the Unova people Ugh and their wasn’t anything to Pokestar was just another boring Minigame that nobody asked for and the PWT was just thrown in the sequeals along with all of the other original Pokemon to makeup for the backlash BW caused but again most of that is just my opinoin I suppose.

Kokujo Report

Sorry but I fail to see how the game is awful if anything the games are the strongest entries in the series thus far because they actually introduced things that the franchise needed to have in order to survive like Super Training, being the first games in the main series to be in 3d, Character Custimization, a type to nerf the overpowered types AKA Fairy, PSS, a way to decrease griding, a way to change the tide of a batte AKA Mega Evolutions etc, so yeah I fail to see how they are horrible if anything these games should of been made ASAP futhermore I feel that it’s zany to say that the games are bad due to how many Pokemon they introduced ( and besides there’re still more to be revealed like Fuupa and Volcanion the game even states that 40 speices of Kalos Pokemon have been killed off) as for the postgame most Pokemon games save gen 2 games, and black 2White 2 don’t have a postgame altleast with these games there’re over 700 Pokemon to use, various teams to make, and many sidequest stories to keep players interested(Which already puts it over gen 1, 3, 4, and black and white), and Story is not rushed but straight to the point it was not made to be deep like Black and Whites story nor was it made to be played out Masuda even stated that the story was’nt going to be the focus besides atleast games the 5th and 6th gen games attempt to have a story unlike most Pokemon games. Whew but look I’m not trying to bash you I just wanted to fill you in and voice my thesis to you sorry if I came off offensive.

Daniel

I guess if you think terribly simple 3D anime type animation is better than 3ds polygons, then who knows when it will be “better.”

I think it is already better.

Aaron K Stone

Years ago. The TV show has crap animation.

animefreakhq

Even though the TV show had crap animation years ago, it was the best season and most watched. I can guarantee that anyone who grew up in the 90’s and early 00’s know all 151 pokemon.

Kalis Konig

“but for Pokemon, which is based on a simply drawn anime TV show” NOOOOOOOOOOOPE!!!! the tv show is based on the games.

James

Reading this just killed a hell of a lot of brain cells. Please, reseach a bit before publishing an article.

Corn Cobber

The author does now know what he is even talking about. The “jaggies” are not directly caused by the 3DS’s poor resolution. They are caused by not utilizing anti-aliasing around the edges of the 3D models.

There are Pokemon games that look better than the show. They are Pokemon Colloseum, XD and Battle Revolution. They were all meant to run on a TV, which is just 640 x 480 (which, although is a large improvement over the 3DS, it is not that much). Also, Colosseum and XD did not have as detailed 3D models as Pokemon X and Y (You can see polygons around the edges of the Pokemon XD and Colloseum models, but they are not visible on the 3DS games), yet Pokemon Colosseum and XD looked way, way better visually than X and Y. Why? Because the textures in those Gamecube games were very detailed, and there were no jagged edges around the 3D models. Also, the camera angles used in the Gamecube games were more realistic which also contributed more towards realism.

I think there is a reason Jagged edges are required for processing two separate images needed for the 3D, or something like that, but when the 3D depth slider is off, there should be no reason for not using anti-aliasing.

When I turn the 3D on during Pokemon battles or super training, the framerate drops unbearably low sometimes on my 3DS XL, not to mention the fact that they look like two paper cutouts fighting with eachother (3D models themselves do not have depth). Something tells me they designed this whole game for the 2DS and that the little 3D they did include in the game was just a gimmick to please regular 3DS owners into thinking they purchased a 3D game. 3D and cell shading do not mix together.

Bryan Hoffman

the writter doesnt know shit the first of the anime is based on the games because red and blue came way before the anime and you know what if the game was to much like the show it wouldnt be as good pokemon is know for the heros and heroines being silent protagists if it were more like the show they would probably ruin it

kyle

pokemon was not based on the anime the tv show pokemon originally started as a trading card game.

kyle

pokemon was not based on the anime the tv show pokemon originally started as a trading card game.

DragonCurse4

Actually the video games came first, then the card game, then the anime.

pepe

Pokemon isn’t a game based on a TV anime show, the show is based on the game. Lol

Wowseriously

Are you retarded, did your mother drop you off a cliff or something? It’s a game, 3 DIMENSIONAL GRAPHICS. It cannot be compared in any way

Neutrino

Well, The shows anime graphics are also changing, If you remember the first seasons like you have a picture above, and compare them with the new XY episodes, You can even see the change, here for example Pokemon

So I guess the question is when will video creation be parallel with game creation. So far games seem to be behind.

Neutrino

Well, The shows anime graphics are also changing, If you remember the first seasons like you have a picture above, and compare them with the new XY episodes, You can even see the change, here for example Pokemon

So I guess the question is when will video creation be parallel with game creation. So far games seem to be behind.

Hairee Pothead

The 3DS is the first Handheld that can handle CD-Qaulity sound and Virtual Orchesta-Qaulity MIDI like Nintendo disc-based Home Systems. instead of the Sub-CD-Qaulity cheaper sounding MIDI’s on the GBA and DS.

Devanor

“When will the pokemon games have better graphics than the tv show?” Uh… nope? I mean, really? They’ve barely STARTED using 3d graphics for pokemon and they already ask for something like this? That’s like learning basic math and asking when they can begin solving algebra…

Devanor

And before someone mentions it, no, Colosseum and XD:gale of darkness does not count.

Andrew Paul Moulton

“3DS, however, perhaps by virtue of its high-res display ” Is this a joke?

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